Article summary

Tech Briefs
By Alan Joch

In recent months, some federal judges in Mississippi form part of a pilot Project launched by the General Services Administration (GSA) to use virtual reality in the design process.
Sponsors hope the design team and client can flag problems with sight lines, lighling, and materials before the cortroom is built, to avoid retrofits or costly change orders.
To visualize designs prior to construction, clients review 2D drawings and mock-ups, these results very expensive.
Paul Marantz (the project’s lighting designer and partner of Fisher Marantz) says that the virtual-reality has some limitations for lighting analysis.
But for Judge William Barbour (U.S. District Court judge for the southern district of Mississippi) “We won’t know if virtual reality accurately simulated the courtroom until we get through with the building”, he says. “But my initial impression is yes, it definitely did.”


Video-Podcast Summary


In the interview Peter Kageyama (the summit's producer and president of CreativeTampaBay) and Arthur Aw (architect, director of Land Planning Group at JTC Corp. in Singapore, speaker at the first Sarasota International Design Summit 2006, and in charge of everything built in Singapore) talk to hosts Janet Sherer and Rob Tiisler about architecture.
Peter and Arthur say that Sarasota International Design Summit 2006 is a summit where professionals can share ideas about how architecture can spur better citizenship, better innovation, better business and creativity.
They talk about their projects: Biopolis (A World-class Research Complex with biomedical science) and One-North (Project that combines urban planning, architecture and science).
Arthur Aw talks about his great responsibility in the Singapore’s construction industry and his work in the architects’ training. His main objective is to create cities that offer citizens a good standard of living without leaving the esthetic aspect behind.



RSTT (Research-Show-Tell-Task) Script

Minimalist Architecture

Minimalism
The term minimalism is used to describe a trend in design and architecture where in the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. Minimalist design has been highly influenced by Japanese traditional design and architecture. De Stijl expanded the ideas that could be expressed by using basic elements such as lines and planes organized in very particular manners. Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto "Less is more" to describe his aesthetic tactic.

Some Project of Minimalism
In the collection “City House” they are some design of house that are minimalism. For example:
*House T
*Helechos
*Ombúes
*Retama
*House G
*Loft Forests
*Of the Bridge

Ombues
A slab of concrete with a smooth and glossy finish accommodates the space for the dinning room, barely delimited by the transparency of a glass rail on an intermediate floor between two floors that begin at the lobby. Minimalist interior architecture where the intense colors of wood stand out on the walls, handrails and doors, and most remarkably, the ebony of the furniture in the dinning room, accentuated by the whiteness of its carpets and an elegant slab of marble. The large windows and the use of neutral colors on most of the finishes adds light to the atmosphere.

Retama
The transparency of the interior facade reveals a pleasing aesthetic experience, not only through sculptures and paintings of great artistic value, but also trough the way they are displayed to the observer. The architectural concept also approaches artistic dimensions in a space where wood, color, texture, furniture and the originality of the different elements that take part in the composition are equally

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